Organizational Pathology of Addiction Treatment Centers in Responding to the Demands of the External Environment: A Reflection on the Views of the Stakeholders

The present study aimed to investigate the organizational pathology of addiction treatment centers in responding to the demands of the external environment.

The current research was a case study based on a qualitative approach. The  research population included four groups of individuals referring to addiction treatment centers, managers and heads of addiction treatment centers, assistant social workers at these centers, and experts in the field of addiction. Using the theoretical purposeful sampling method and relying on theoretical data saturation, 37 people were selected; the first three groups working in 11 centers across the country. A semi-structured interview was used to collect research data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data.

The research results indicated that addiction treatment centers were facing numerous damages inside the organization (organizational cultural damages, organizational structure damages, human resource management damages, and financial damages) and outside the organization (environmental cultural damages, detrimental  institutional pressures, and lack of institutional support ).

The identified damages can be explained and analyzed from a political point of view. Therefore, in order to create effective accountability, addiction treatment centers need to adopt political strategies, including marketing and negotiating to attract institutional support, and also re-engineering their organizational structure.